You Never Heard of Willie Mays?!

This post joins other
Nonfiction Monday blogs
hosted today by Sally's Bookshelf

and joins It's Monday!

What are you reading?

at Teacher Mentor Texts

Schwartz & Wade Books
(Random House)
(pub.1.8.2013) 40 pages 

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor: Jonah Winter
      and Illustrator: Terry Widener

    

C haracter: Willie Mays

O verview from the publisher's website: 

      "He hit 660 home runs (fourth best of all time), had a lifetime batting average of .302, and is second only to Babe Ruth on The Sporting News's list of 'Baseball's 100 Greatest Players.' Many believe him to be the best baseball player that ever lived. His name is Willie Mays. In Jonah Winter and Terry Widener's fascinating picture book biography, young readers can follow Mays's unparalleled career from growing up in Birmingham, Alabama, to playing awe-inspiring ball in the Negro Leagues and then the Majors, where he was center fielder for the New York (later San Francisco) Giants. Complete with sidebars filled with stats, and a cool lenticular cover, here is a book for all baseball lovers, young and old."

T antalizing taste: 

     "You could fill a whole book with all the jaw-droppin' plays Willie made, all the homers he hit, all the bases he stole. But what made 'the Catch' in '54 so special was that millions of people all over America had seen it on TV ... 
      Just look at him: Even as he falls to his knees after makin' that play, his eyes still takin' in the path of the ball - even then, you could see he was mentally still in the game, wantin' to win, never givin' up, ready for more.
     Yessir, in that one moment when Willie made the Catch, he showed the world a new way of playing the game. He changed how people saw his skin. In his own way, he changed the world."

and something more: Today's feature of yet another baseball player biography picture book was inspired by fellow kidlit blogger, Jeff Barger at NC Teacher Stuff. Jeff asked if I knew of any picture book about Willie Mays. Voila! Jeff had recently visited my favorite and local baseball stadium, AT&T Park in San Francisco, and I had mentioned the sculpture of Willie Mays in front of the ballpark.
     I learned that WIllie Mays joined the SF Giants in 1958. Just this past May, Willie Mays celebrated his 82nd birthday and the San Francisco Chronicle posted photos from his career. A living legend and amazing role model!

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Bon Appetit!

The Delicious Life of Julia Child

This post is part of Nonfiction Monday 

hosted today by Practically Paradise

and joins It's Monday! What are you Reading? at Teacher Mentor Texts

Schwartz & Wade Books (Random House)

(pub. 5.22.2012)  48 pages 

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor and illustrator: Jessie Hartland

C haracter: Julia Child

O verview from the jacket flap: 

      "She changed the way all of us - kids and grown-ups - eat in America.

        She starred in a pioneering TV cooking show.

        Growing up, she was a tomboy and a prankster.

        She had size 12 feet!

        She worked as a spy during World War !!.

        She wrote one of the greatest cookbooks of all time.

        Here's the delicious, true story - from soup to nuts - of the one and only Julia Child."

        

T antalizing taste: 

   "... Boston public TV station WGBH offers Julia her own cooking show.

    'I'd like to call it THE FRENCH CHEF. It's short and to-the-point.'

     Even people who don't like to cook watch the show and love it!

     [On The Chicken Show] Julia Child presents the chicken sisters. 'Miss Broiler! Miss Fryer! Miss Roaster! Miss Caponette! Miss Stewer! and old Madame Hen!'

     And Julia's advice should something fall on the floor? 'You can always pick it up. If you are alone in the kitchen, whoooooo is going to see?'

     The shows are not live, but - to save money - they are all shot in 'one take' (no editing) which is tricky.

     There are some very funny moments.

     Once Julia pulls a used bundle of herbs from a stockpot and says, 'It looks like a dead mouse.'

     Another time she simply TOSSES an inferior loaf of bread over her shoulder. 'No good! That bread!'

     ... On the suckling pig show she carefully cleans the pig's ears and teeth before cooking.  But when it comes out of the oven, she can't cut it into chops. 'You try to carve it - I certainly can't.'

     ... 'Oh, nuts! I burned the sauce.'  

     'Don't apologize for your cooking mistakes. It is what it is.'

                  'I'm Julia Child. Bon appetit!' *

                  * She ends each show saying this."

and something more: My sons attended the same high school as Julia Child, but in her day it was an all-girls boarding school. In Bon Appetit!, author Jessie Hartland writes "[Julia] really doesn't take school all that seriously. High school French class is a disaster. 'Je ne comprends pas.' "Tres mal!'  (She will make up for this later) ... Julia spends the first months [in Paris] studying French. She loves to talk and believes that nothing is more important than being able to communicate. She works hard. It will take her two years to speak well enough to get by; four years to be fluent."  

       Author-illustrator Jessie Hartland writes in her dedication, "... And lastly, thanks to my mom ... for fabricating for Xmas 1965 the brilliant French cafe dollhouse (complete with tiny food and menus in French!), which got me started on France, cooking, and Julia Child." Jessie's wonderful illustration of Julia cooking in her kitchen in Provence reminds me of a French dollhouse, with all the food, books and utensils labeled in French. How sweet is that?!  Tres bien!

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Born and Bred in the Great Depression

This post is part of Nonfiction Monday 

hosted today by Booktalking

Schwartz & Wade (Random House)

(pub. 10.11.2011)  40 pages 

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor: Jonah Winter

     and Illustrator: 
                 Kimberly Bulcken Root

C haracter: Jonah Winter's father

O verview from the publisher: 

         "East Texas, the 1930s—the Great Depression. Award-winning author Jonah Winter's father grew up with seven siblings in a tiny house on the edge of town. In this picture book, Winter shares his family history in a lyrical text that is clear, honest, and utterly accessible to young readers, accompanied by Kimberly Bulcken Root's rich, gorgeous illustrations. Here is a celebration of family and of making do with what you have—a wonderful classroom book that's also perfect for children and parents to share."

T antalizing taste: 

"At Christmastime, you might not have gotten

many toys,

but it was magical to watch

the trains pass by.

to see the blue lights

twinkling in the windows of the dining car.

And it was a good day

if you got to play chess

with your dad

or listen to him play the banjo on the porch

in his special style,

two fingers gone

from a lumber mill accident."

and something more: Jonah Winter tells a poignant story about his father in Born and Bred in the Great Depression.  I was particularly drawn to the description of "a good day" as one in which he played chess with his dad or listened to him play the banjo. My son has taken up the banjo and he bought a wonderful used banjo from an experienced banjo player who said he bought this banjo, one of his first banjos, in college from someone who had played it during the Depression. If only that banjo could tell the stories of the people who played it and the settings where it was played.  Who knows? Maybe it crossed the path of the family of Jonah Winter's father. 

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Before There Was Mozart

The Story of JOSEPH BOULOGNE, 

CHEVALIER de SAINT-GEORGE

This post is part of Nonfiction Monday

hosted today by History With A Twist

 

Schwartz & Wade (Random House)
(pub. 1.25.11)

 40 pages

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor:  Lesa Cline-Ransome

      and Illustrator: James E. Ransome
     
C haracter:  Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-George

               
O verview from publisher: 

      "The musical superstar of 18th-century France was Joseph Boulogne ... After traveling from his native West Indies to study music in Paris, young Joseph is taunted about his skin color. Despite his classmates' cruel words, he continues to devote himself to his violin, eventually becoming conductor of a whole orchestra. Joseph begins composing his own operas which everyone acknowledges to be magnifique.  But will he ever reach his dream of performing for the king and queen of France?"

T antalizing taste: 

       "During one performance, a young man sat among the crowd, enthralled.  The unusual melody at the end of one of Joseph's pieces stayed with him long after the playing had stopped.  Brimming with inspiration, he returned home to Vienna, where he began work on his Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat Major for violin and viola. The young man was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart... But though each enjoyed the other's music and they had mutual acquaintances, the two never met."

and something more: The dedication in this book is for "Jeanette Peterson" who brought "the life of Saint-George into our home." Joseph Saint-George "though ... best known for his violin performances ... is also credited with writing fourteen concertos, nine symphonies, eighteen string quartets and six operas." (Lesa Cline-Ransome's Author's Note includes additional historical background in this interesting picture book biography, Before There Was Mozart).  It's wonderful that more of us will now learn about him!

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The Watcher

Jane Goodall's Life with the Chimps

This post is part of Nonfiction Monday

hosted today by Great Kid Books

 

Schwartz & Wade Books
(pub. 4.5.2011) 
48 pages

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor and illustrator: Jeanette Winter

     
C haracter: Jane Goodall

 
O verview from jacket flap: 

      "Little Jane Goodall loved to watch all the animals in her world - the earthworms and insects, bird and cats. She loved to read about Dr. Doolittle, who could talk to animals.
       When she grew up, Jane followed her dream and traveled to Africa to study chimpanzees. She watched them, she listened to them, and, in time, she became their friend."

T antalizing taste: 

       "And when she went back to civilization to speak out for the chimps, Jane carried with her the peace of the forest -- the forest in Gombe where she talked to the animals like Dr. Doolittle, and walked unafraid like Tarzan, and watched and wrote, and opened a window for us to the world of the chimpanzees."

and something more:  Jeanette Winter, the author of this wonderful picture book biography, The Watcher, writes in A Note About This Story, "I wish that when I was a little girl, I could have read about someone like Jane Goodall -- a brave woman who wasn't afraid to do something that had never been done before. So now I've made this book for that little girl, who still speaks to me."  So nicely said.  And isn't that what we, as writers for children hope to do -- connect to the child within all of us.

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